1913 private laws – Ch.359 Sec.49

That the board of aldermen shall have control of all the finances and of the property, real and personal, belonging to the city, and of all matters pertaining to the administration of the affairs of the city, except as herein otherwise especially provided, and among the powers hereby granted shall have power and authority, by ordinances duly enacted: -1 To provide, according to law, for the payment of any exisiz ing indebtedness, and of any obligation that may from time to time be made by the city, and to appropriate funds for that purpose. -2 To establish, construct, and keep. in repair streets, sidewalks, bridges, culverts, drains and conduits in the city, to regulate the construction and use of the same, and to abate or punish any obstruction or encroachment thereon or any damage to or destruction thereof. -3 To prevent excavations on any street or sidewalk unless by permission of the board or except under the direction of the city engineer; to prescribe and exact fees for such privilege, and to require deposits as guarantees of the proper restoration of such street or sidewalk. -4 To provide for the lighting of the streets, public grounds and public buildings, and for furnishing light to the citizens of said city, by contract or otherwise, and to erect, own, and operate machinery, fixtures, appliances and appurtenances of every nature whatever, necessary for said purposes. -5 To regulate the speed of all railroad trains, street cars and locomotives within the city and their stops at street crossings; to require the companies to keep the streets through which they run in repair, and to require all railroad companies or street railway companies to light the streets over or across which their trains or cars are operated whenever deemed necessary; to prescribe the kind of lights to be used, and to levy special taxes or assessments upon them for street improvement in the same manner as against abutting property-owners. -6 To require all railroad companies to maintain gates or watchmen at street crossings when deemed necessary. -7 To regulate and control the laying and construction of railroad tracks, turnouts, and switches, and to require that they be constructed and laid so as to interfere as little as possible with the ordinary travel and use of the streets, and to require that they be kept in repair. To regulate and control the location of cable and street railroad tracks and all steam railroad tracks, and to require railway companies of all kinds to construct at their own expense such bridges, turnouts, culverts, crossings, and other things as the board of aldermen may deem necessary. (S) To control and regulate the location and use of steam engines in the city, and to adopt such rules and regulations in relation thereto as may seem best for the public safety and comfort. Ben -9 To regulate the use of automobiles, motor cars, motorcycles, or any motor vehicles; to issue permits for the use of such vehicles, and to require the same to be numbered, and to regulate the use of heavy vehicles upon the streets of the city and prescribe the streets upon which they shall be operated. -10 To provide for the inspection of all dairies inside and outside of the city limits doing business within the city and charge and provide for license fees; to regulate and maintain a standard for the quality of milk sold in the city and provide for penalties for the violation thereof. -11 To regulate, license or prohibit the business of slaughtering animals in the city limits, to revoke such license for malconduct in business; to regulate and license the sale of fresh meats, and to license and regulate or prohibit slaughter-houses which furnish meats to markets within the city. -12 To require any owner or occupant of any dairy, grocery, blacksmith shop, stable, and slaughter-house to cleanse, repair, or abate, aS may be necessary for the health, comfort, and convenience of the inhabitants. -18 To establish markets and market places, and provide for the government and regulation thereof. -14 To establish and regulate public grounds, and to regulate, restrain, and prohibit the running at large of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, dogs, and other animals in the city, and to authorize the impounding and sale of the same for the costs of the proceedings and penalty incurred, and to order the destruction of such as cannot be sold, and to impose penalties on the owners or keepers thereof for violation of any ordinance; and at all such sales the purchaser of any animal shall be deemed to acquire a good and valid title thereto, if provisions of the ordinance have been complied with. -15 To pass ordinances for the due observance of Sunday and for maintenance of order in the vicinity of churches and schools. -16 To establish and own stations and. other property for a fire department for extinguishing fires, and to provide everything necessary for the regulation and maintenance of such department. -17 To establish fire limits, and prohibit the erection, building, placing, removing, or repairing of wooden buildings within said limits; to prohibit the removal of any wooden building from one place to another within said limits, require all buildings within said limits to be constructed with fireproof material; also prohibit the repairing of wooden buildings within said limits when the same shall have been damaged one-third of their value, and to provide the mode of ascertaining such damage; also to declare all dilapidated buildings which they deem dangerous on account of fire, or for other reasons, nuisances, and require the same to be removed in such manner as the board may direct. -18 To provide for an inspection of the construction of all buildings in said city, and to prescribe and enforce proper regulations in regard thereto; to regulate and locate the erection of all poles in the city, and cause the same to be changed, whether telegraph, telephone, electric light, or otherwise; to require all telegraph, telephone, electric light, or other wires to be laid underground ; to provide for the supervision and inspection of all electrical works and appliances used or intended for the use or manufacture or supplying or receiving of electricity within the city, either for light, heat, power, telephone, telegraph, or signaling systems; for the inspection of all plumbing work, water fixtures, and sewer connections constructed or being constructed in said city. -19 To authorize one or more officers, agents, or employees of the city to enter in and upon all buildings and premises, within the city, to inspect and discover whether the same are dangerous on account of fire, or in any unclean state; to cause all defects to be remedied, and filth and trash to be removed, and to establish such regulations for the prevention and extinguishment of fires as it may deem expedient. -20 To require the construction of suitable fire-escapes on or in hotels, lodging-houses, factories, theaters, and other buildings, whether now built or hereafter to be built. (21) To prevent dangerous construction and condition of chimneys, fireplaces, hearths, stoves and stovepipes, boilers, furnaces, and other heating apparatus, and cause the same to be removed and made safe; and to prevent nuisances on account of dense smoke from furnaces. -22 To regulate the size, number, and manner of construction of doors and stairways of theaters, tenement-houses, audiencerooms, public halls, and all buildings used for the gathering of a large number of people, whether now built or hereafter to be built, so that there may be convenient, safe, and speedy exit in case of fires; to make such regulations in regard to such buildings for the purpose of preventing or decreasing the danger of fire as it may deem expedient. -23 To define, according to law, what shall be nuisances in the city, and to abate them by summary proceedings, and to punish the authors thereof by penalties, fines, or imprisonment. -24 To establish one or more crematories and to provide for the removal of all filth, carcasses of dead animals, and other unhealthful substances for cremation, and to require the owners and occupants of all premises to keep them in a cleanly condition. -25 To require the owners of private drains, sinks, and privies to fill up, cleanse, drain, alter, relay, repair, fix, and improve the Same, aS they may be ordered by ordinance, and impose penalties on persons failing to do the same. If there be no person in the city upon whom sucn order can be served, the city can-have such work done, and costs of the same shall be a lien on the property and taxed up. against it, and collected in such manner as the board may determine. -26 To establish one or more cemeteries and to regulate the burying of the dead, the registration of births and deaths, direct the keeping and returning of bills of mortality, and impose penalties on physicians, undertakers, sextons, and others for any default in the premises. -27 To establish systems of sewerage and works for sewage disposal, and to extend and build the same beyond the corporate limits, either for the purpose of continuing its mains or allowing connections by residents of territory outside of the city of Charlotte and within Charlotte Township; to require the owners of real property upon which residences or other buildings are located, abutting upon the streets in which sewers and water mains are located, or within a reasonable distance thereof, to connect said residences or other buildings with public sewers and water mains; to make by ordinance reasonable rules, regulations, and conditions for connections with and opening into the public sewers and water mains, and to fix reasonable fees and rates to be charged to property-owners for such connections and openings and the subsequent use thereof, which rates shall also apply to the owners whose property has heretofore been connected with the public sewers and water mains, now established, as well as owners of that to be connected hereafter; to levy a tax not exceeding five cents per front foot upon every building lot fronting on any sewer line in the city of Charlotte; to make in their discretion additional fees, charges, rules and regulations to apply to persons outside the city limits connecting with such public sewers and water mains; to pass such ordinances as shall be necessary to enforce the collection of such fees, charges, and taxes. -28 To provide for taking an enumeration of the inhabitants of the city; it shall be the duty of the Governor of the State, whenever the board shall, by resolution, so request, to appoint a commissioner, who shall supervise such enumeration, whose compensation, together with all expenses of such enumeration, shall be paid in such manner as the board of aldermen may provide. -29 To prescribe fines, forfeitures, and penalties for breach of any ordinance, enforcing the powers granted in this charter, and to provide for the recovery and appropriation of such fines and forfeitures and the enforcement of such penalties. -30 To require the owner of every building in the city to number the Same in accordance with ordinances of the board of aldermen and pay to the city the cost of such numbers furnished by it. -31 To require persons owning or controlling any building or plant in which fuel is consumed to put in such appliances for the consumption of smoke and to make such ordinances and rules concerning the burning of fuel as it may deem necessary; to regulate gases which may come from any plant or building and which may be harmful to citizens or their property.